For Conservatives, a choice

Republican, knocking Cuomo, gets warm welcome at gathering

Casey Seile, Times Union

By Casey Seiler

Updated 9:11 pm, Monday, January 27, 2014

Westchester Co. Exec. Rob Astorino, Jan. 27, 2014
/ Times Union

Rob Astorino, the Westchester County executive and potential Republican candidate for governor, addresses leaders of the state's Conservative Party on Monday. The group is gathering at the Holiday Inn Turf on Wolf Road in Colonie. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union)

Rob Astorino told the state Conservative Party's winter gathering he had come before them to pose a simple question: "Is New York state winning, or is New York state losing?"

The Westchester County executive and potential Republican gubernatorial nominee already had his answer, and knocked Gov. Andrew Cuomo for policies that he said were harmful to prosperity and freedom.

"The New York I see today is the state that tells you why something can't be done," Astorino said to a crowd of about 100 Monday at the Holiday Inn Turf in Colonie. "There's always an excuse — it's the unions, it's the environmentalists, it's the impact studies, it's the regulations. ... It's a state on its heels."

The 15-minute address suggested a stump speech in development, in which Astorino said his political success in a heavily Democratic county could be replicated statewide.

Astorino, who is seen by many as the favored candidate of establishment Republicans, received a warm welcome a day after 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino dismissed Astorino and said he'd be likely to make a run for the Conservative line if real estate mogul Donald Trump decided to stay out of the race. A split in the anti-Cuomo vote poses peril for both parties; the Conservative Party needs to attract 50,000 votes for its gubernatorial candidate in order to guarantee its ballot line for four more years.

Riffing on Cuomo's controversial comments that "extreme conservative" candidates have "no place" in the state, he said he was glad to be among his "fellow extremists."

"I am as happy to be here with you as Andrew Cuomo would be watching us cross the Canadian border with a wagonful of bishops and gun owners," Astorino said.

He said Cuomo's depictions of a rebounding New York were "one big fairy tale," and he summed up Cuomo's agenda as merely managing decline, plus "more gambling, legalizing pot, demonizing and mocking gun owners, and expanding late-term abortions into the ninth month of pregnancy — and let's not even get started on Cuomo's Common Core."

Astorino offered no policy proposals of his own but pointed to the "fiscal discipline" he has imposed on Westchester County, which for a Republican was "tough terrain — home of the Clintons, home of the Hollywood stars," he said

"A conservative Republican governing as a conservative Republican can still win in New York State," he said, eliciting applause.

State Democratic Committee Executive Director Rodney Capel said Westchester County "has been losing under Rob Astorino because for the last four years the county has been the highest-taxed county in the nation and its bond rating has been downgraded."